Thalia and Co plus one
by Child of Darkness and Chaos
Summary: Percy's mother died leaving Percy the knowledge that he's a demigod, but not that Camp Half-Blood exists. Now Percy is being chased by monsters while trying to learn to use his powers, until one day in San Francisco he meets a certain grey-eyed girl
1. Don't smile much anymore

**Hello, Child here. This is one of the fanfics that I've been making/thinking before I got an account here on . **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or its characters, that right belongs to Rick Riordan.**

Seven year-old Percy Jackson didn't have a lot of things to smile about lately. When he was born, his father was supposedly lost at sea. When he was a baby, he had an encounter with a snake that could've killed him; though his mother found him playing a limp, scaly rope. When he was able to speak and walk properly, he had to see his mother bear the weight of providing for herself and him, all the while trying to work her way to become a novelist, seeing her flash her smile that said _'don't worry honey everything is going to be alright, you'll see'_, though it was evident to young Percy that his mother was struggling to achieve her ends without using any dirty means. Sure he still had fun, laughing with his mother, celebrating mother's day, his birthday, and his mother's; forgetting for those small moments of joy that realty wasn't fantasy.

But the coup de grace that made Perseus smile less than before was when he learned why he had ADHD and dyslexia, and the price that came with that knowledge.

* * *

><p><em>It was a nice afternoon, the sun was shining so brightly that Percy could've sworn he would get a nice tan just by standing outside for five minutes.<em>

_His mother came back from her job as a waitress for a run-down dirty diner. She also came back with movies in her hand that Percy had wanted to watch for a long time then. She had changed from her uniform into casual clothing, made popcorn, and brought candy from one of her hiding spots when her son wasn't looking._

_Mother and son both settled down on the couch with a bowel of popcorn on Sally's lap with candy bars such as Hershey's, Crunch, and Butterfingers on the coffee table in front of them. The lights were off to add to the feel of being in a movie theater. The T.V. showed the main menu of the disc._

_An hour, a bowel of popcorn, and several candy bars later, the movie was starting to come to a close, as was young Percy's eyelids were. Seeing her son beginning to fall asleep whilst he snuggled closer to his mother for warmth, she let a smile grace her face. The life she led may be hard, but seeing her son like this, she knew it wasn't so bad. Feeling sleepy herself, she gently brought Percy closer to herself as she was laying down on the couch, ignoring the fact that both her and her son were going to get aching backs in the morning._

_She was just about to fall asleep when she heard a bump she believed to be near the stairs of the hallway of the apartment floor. She thought of the sound for a bit before shrugging it off as someone dropping their phone while coming up the stairs. Then she heard a growl. Not the growl you would hear from a dog, or even any beast in the wild. No this growl was sinister, menacing, and it brought a dark promise, a promise that she would no longer be able to keep her dear son with her._

_She quickly sprung up, wide awake and alert from the fear. As she came up Percy was accidently pushed to the other side of the couch, rousing him for the most part. With her mind racing, Sally Jackson tried to think of several ways to escape from the threat with Percy. She thought of the fire escape right outside the window in her bedroom. She grabbed Percy's arm as gently and fast as she could and led him away from the living room into her bedroom. Percy came to his senses after a bit of the guiding and asked his mother where they going?_

_Sally in an effort to not alert her son told him that they're going to the fire escape for safety. This answer confused her son and he asked her what are they going to safety for? As they were entering her room scratches were heard from behind the door in the living room. Fear rising within her, Sally had to restrain herself from becoming frantic so as to avoid scaring her son and to able to control her actions._

_She told him they're running from a bad dog. Percy innocently asked how could a dog get into their home without a doggy door. She didn't answer as she opened the window, climbed out onto the metal floor and helping Percy get through the window. The door in the living room burst open and a hair-raising roar was heard. Percy now grasping a fragment of how dangerous the situation they were in, became panicked. His mother wasn't so well off herself. But she for the sake of saving her son, she kept control over herself and told Percy to climb down the ladder to the ground of the asphalt. She knew that if she went first then she could prevent Percy from hurting himself from the fall, but she also knew that would leave him unprotected from the monster that threatens her son's life, so she would go last to distract the creature from hurting her son._

_Percy didn't want to leave his mom behind, but the tone of her voice told him to obey and obey he did. Sniffing was heard from the living room as the "dog" was trying to find the source of the delicious smell. Percy reached the last rung of the ladder and fell down on the asphalt of the cement floor of the alley. He was going to cry for his mom, but he knew that if he cried out for her, the "dog" would find him and his mom. So swallowing the pain from his butt and legs, he got up with eyes that watered. His mother came down shortly and grabbed his hand to go deeper into the alley to escape the pursuer. It was too late however as the canine poked his face through the window and caught a glance at them._

_Its face was black with eyes that were a red that resembled smoldering flames. Its skin was black like it'd been burned. The creature was growling and bared its long jagged teeth that guaranteed a painful experience for anyone that were caught in them. The ears were raised, alert and waiting to pick up the smallest abnormal sound, such as a child falling on the floor._

_Seeing this monster from hell, Sally finally lost her composure and broke out into a run with her son, who shared the same state of mind. Deep in her mind, Sally knew that it was useless to try __and outrun the being that was now hot on their tail. When the beast was about ten meters away from them, she decided to take a stand. She whispered heart-breaking words into her son's ears._

_"Percy I'm going to buy you some time. I'm going to stay behind and distract this monster. I need to tell you something as well. Your father is alive. He's a god, a Greek God. His name is Poseidon. You are a demigod, a being that lives in two worlds, the realm of humans and the realm of Greek Mythology. The hellhound is coming! Run Percy! Run my precious baby boy!"_

_Percy wasn't even paying attention to the fact that his father is alive or a god. He was crying his eyes out, with snot running from his nose. He was screaming 'don't leave me!', 'your coming with me!' and any other words he found that might persuade his mom to come with him Seeing the state of her boy broke Sally's heart._

_"Don't worry I'll come back to you." His mom said so sadly yet comfortingly while placing a hand on his unruly black hair._

_Sea-green eyes looked into his mothers eyes, that clearly spoke 'my world is breaking apart'._

_"How do you know!" He screamed with a huge sob coming afterwards that made Percy look down._

_Placing a hand under his chin, she lifted his head so their eyes met again "Because moms know everything"_

_Bending down, she gave her son a kiss on the forehead and said with tears streaming down her face, as broken hearted as he was at their coming separation._

_"They also know what's best."_

_She turned her son and pushed him forward to get him running. He turns back, just one more time, with pleading green eyes, for her to come also._

_Softly, a she whispers "Percy. Run."_

_With that he turns around and runs away, letting the tears fall down his face._

_She would've told him to go to Camp Half-Blood, but the hellhound would get here by the time she finished telling Percy. She could only pray that Poseidon will guide their child to safety. Sally sees the creature coming and with a sad smile, she speaks her last words, that echoed throughout the alley"_

_"Percy, the only joy of my life, live on and live happily for the rest of your life"_

* * *

><p>The beast pounces and the screams that followed minutes after haunted Percy's every waking moment and every nightmare from then on.<p>

It's been a year since he learned he is a demigod, and from that day onward he hated and cursed himself for being a coward and leaving his mother to a fate he believed he could've prevented.

Percy Jackson didn't have a lot of things to smile about lately since the day his mother died.


	2. Leaving

**Well hoped I didn't do too bad on the first chapter. Anyways ch.2 is up and ready. **

**Disclaimer: I'm not a 46 year old man, unless for someone reason I forgot 31 years of my life and suddenly living in Texas, in which case, I want those 31 years back. **

**But seriously, I don't own the Percy Jackson series or its characters, that right belongs to the man living in Texas, Mr. Riordan**

Annabeth Chase was running. She was panting with eyes that had been dewed with tears, hereyes still red from the reality that the place that she should've been able to call her home, reject her, hate her even. Sad enough that she was a scared seven year old little girl that left the unbearable atmosphere of her family; she didn't even have a friend in the world. Her mom was a Goddess, an important one too, so she was away on Mt. Olympus to work. So Annabeth had done the natural thing that every child does when they're in an unloving and cruel home, she ran away.

Running from the living room of _house _to the front door, while it was night, with a heart weighted down from rejection, sadness, and anger. It wasn't her fault she was born, she didn't choose to have a Greek Goddess of Wisdom be her mother, her _real _mother. The father whose blood runs through her veins didn't love her enough to let her stay with him, but instead sided the step-mother that hated her. He had once found her to be a nuisance that was interupting the life he was trying to establish for himself, it wasn't her decision to be born to a father who found his wife to be more important than her.

Life it seems, had deemed that she was deserving to be of more grief as her father met and married a woman who, like her father, wasn't fond of her godly heritage. They even had kids who became the main focus of the parents, so as to help them forget the smudge in their life that they couldn't erase.

She ran across the street, refusing to look back and see her step-mother's happy face as the "freak" had finally left her family, the voices inside her head were enough torture. The sky seemed to be feeling pretty badly too as the dark blue sky grew a little darker as as grey clouds gathered in the sky.

_"Annabeth I can't believe that you would endanger our family (she knew well enough that she wasn't in the our) knowing full well what would happen if you tried to follow us on our picnic" her step-mother's voice was scathing_

Her eyes were closed with tear dripping out of them, still running as if she could flee the memories replaying in her head.

"I just wanted to be a part of the family." She screams to the nothingness of the streets.

The clouds let their own tears fall to the Earth, masking her tears with theirs

* * *

><p><em>Little Annabeth just had a nightmare and was creeping to the door of her father's bedroom while clutching onto a stuffed owl. She opens the door gently, seeing her father's figure mostly buried underneath the blanket. Timidly she walks closer to him, holding her plushy tighter. She reaches her father's side and she shakes the hand that lays off the side of the bed, away from the blanket. She shakes on it a few times before her father rouses.<em>

_He moves his head to the side to look at his daughter. With sleepy and mostly closed eyes he speaks "Annabeth what are you doing here?" _

_"I- I had a bad dream." Big grey eyes were looking somewhat hopefully at her daddy, will he chase the monsters away?_

_"It was just a dream Annabeth, go to sleep." he said with no concern in his voice_

_"But dad-" _

_"Annabeth, go to sleep" He said forcefully._

_"Dad-"_

_"Annabeth go to sleep" he said with finality in his voice_

_He rolls over to the other side of the bed to try and resume sleeping_

_With disheartened stormy grey eyes, the little girl goes back to her room with her owl being dragged by the leg. _

* * *

><p><em>Drooling little babies were crawling towards her while she was sitting on the floor reading a book called "Frankenstein", each eyeing her shoulder-length curly blonde hair. They had seen this girl so much in the house they lived in, but their mommy and daddy never let them get to close to her, but now they were taking a nap upstairs in their bedroom. <em>

_Seeing the chubby twin babies make their way to her, Annabeth thought this was a chance for her to actually interact with a couple members of her family. She set the book down, got up, and walked to them. The twins looked at her with innocent amusement in their eyes as she bent down and tickled them both on their bellies. They squealed with delight and giggled madly whenever they could contain themselves. She smiled at their cute little faces lighting up whenever she let her fingers touch their tummies. She played pick-a-boo with them._

_"Where am I? Where am I Bobby and Matt?" she smiled from behind the crack of her fingers as she the twins looking about the room, confused as to how their entertaining playmate disappeared. _

_"Pick-a-boo!" When she opens her fingers she sees the two pudgy faces whip around to see her and open their mouths to laugh, all the while clapping with their hands. _

_Once the twins played the game too much to laugh out loud (though they stilled giggled), she decided to pick one of them up. Soon she raised the expecting baby up in the air and then down again, getting the desired laugh from the little one, while earning a "Pick me! Pick up! I want to play too!" look from Matt. She was laughing whenever one of the twins laughed at being brough up in the air and down again. _

_"Annabeth! What are you doing to my babies!" _

_With Matt in her hands, the innocent blonde hair girl turned her head to see her angry step-mother. _

_"I was just-" Annabeth wasn't really listened to by her step-mother before and this time was no different._

_Her step-mom marched over to her and snatched Matt from her hands, giving her a scornful look before she turned her head and whispered to her child if he was alright. All she received was an excited babble. Turning to look at Annabeth she told her that she could never play with Bobby or Matt ever again_

* * *

><p>Every memory, every little attempt that she made to become a part of the family, all flowing back to her, caused her to stumble and fall down face-first on the grass of someone's porch. The pain made her cry some more.<p>

"Annabeth dear, why are you crying?" Annabeth heard a motherly voice above her, making her hope that it was the person, or rather Goddess, she wanted to see.

The blonde-haired girl raised her head from the cold wet ground to look at a woman with an umbrella that had owls dotted all over on it, bent over with the umbrella to get closer to hear and to stop her from getting any more wet. The woman was wearing dark blue jeans and a grey blouse with blonde hair and stormy grey eyes that were the exact same shade as hers, she swelled with happiness.

She quickly got up from the grass and ran to hug her mother's leg, ready to cry on her while her mommy just stays there with her hand rubing soothingly over her back and her umbrella held over them as she comforts her daugther while she sobs. Sadly she just ran through her mom to end up on the ground again. Sure she knew that her mom Athena really did love her (she just _knows_), but she was a goddess, she couldn't come down in front of her to hold her, tell her soothing words, dry her tears, and make everything better, Annabeth should've known that the mom in front of her was nothing more than her imagination. But still it would've been nice if she could just appear right at her side and hold her.

So dejectedly, she ignored her small legs' pleas for rest, and got up and continued running, just to get away from all the hurt.

Annabeth finally gave into her legs' pleas and collapsed in an alley. Since she had finally stopped, her mind was allowed to wander, unfortunately, it entered the open door to the memory as to why she ran away.

* * *

><p><em>Annabeth was walking down the stairs after taking a bath, to tell her dad and her step-mom that she was sorry for the hellhound that disrupted their evening out in the park, one of the few times that they actually went out with her. She made it to the last step before she heard her step-mom's voice<em>

_"Frederick, that little freak has got to go!" Those words bit into her._

_"Dear we can't let Annabeth" her dad put emphasis on her name, and it made the small child feel a little better "go out on the streets to become food for Greek monsters."_

_"Well we can't let her stay here and invite those same monsters to make a meal out us, your family!"_

_"No monster ever came into our house before, so there shouldn't be much of a chance that they would come here later." Her dad said firmly._

_"Frederick that's bull and you know it! Just because they don't come now doesn't necessarily mean that they won't come later!"_

_Her father gave a exasperated sigh"But even if she does attract those monsters, she's still my daughter." Annabeth was growing more happier each time her dad came to her defense. Why wasn't he this caring around her?_

_"After all those times that you sided with me in not involving her with the twins, not letting her go with us on drive to wherever, why aren't you siding with me now? Look at the danger she brought us today when we actually let her come with us, in fact all those other times we brought her with us, that girl is nothing but a harbinger of disaster."_

_"Because this decision is esentially whether we leave her die or let her stay with us and live!" Her father never sounded so much angrier in her life. _

_Her step-mother though didn't back down. "Well why don't we give her to some caring foster home or give her away to some couple."_

_"I will not send my daughter to some strangers!" _

_"Isn't there some place where we could dump her with rejects like her."_

_There was a silence, even though there was a huff from her father, probably at the word "reject". Her dad never called her names, though his wife and sometimes her half-brothers did, her dad just usually ignored her or sided with her step-mother. _

_"Well" Oh no, her father was siding with her step-mother again "there was this one place Athena told me that I should send Annabeth to when she becomes twelve." All through the sentence Annabeth was thinking 'nonononono'. _

_"Why didn't you tell me this earlier, we could've sent her to this place long ago and be living a perfect life." _

_Deciding she heard enough, Annabeth ran straight to the door in front of her. _

_The last person she heard was her father "Annabeth?"_

* * *

><p>So here she was with tears that spilled from her eyes once more as her arms pulled up any object it could reach to use as a blanket. She found a large torn piece of a cardboard box and fell asleep hours later in the night, no knowing that a pair of green eyes settled upon her form.<p>

**Hey I revised chapter two as I didn't think I did as well on this as I could've. Sorry if got Annabeth's dad's name wrong or the twins. **


	3. When boy meets girl

**Hey Child here! *grins from ear to ear* Uploaded like thirty minutes ago and I got reviews! Nice ones too. Sorry, but I'm happy cuz I didn't know what people would have thought of story and I'm just happy that I didn't do bad!**

**Disclaimer: The good author Rick Riordan owns PJatO and its characters**

**A-hem *smile shortens to a grin* ARE YOU READY CH.3!**

**"YES DRILL SERGEANT!"**

**THEN GO!**

**"YES SIR, LAUNCHING!" flies off the "My Stories" launching deck (sorry, played Gundam: Dynasty Warriors today ^-^)**

**P.S. when I said that these were being done b4 I had an account, these 3 chapters were made a day b4 the account and the following two days after. Yea, I came prepared =).**

Percy left New York after the death of his mother as he couldn't bear to be in the same state where his mother had died. That was most of his reasons though. He was on the run from the monster that he found out actually exists. He was also trying to find his father as when he had tried praying to him, but there must've been some technical difficulties. He suddenly had the thought that his godly father listened to a radio to hear prayers that were being made for him to answer (hopefully). Maybe there was mixed signals?

On his journey through the states, he tried to teach himself how to manipulate water. He only managed to move about five gallons of consciously. But whenever he was cornered by monsters, he always felt this tug in his gut and waves of water crashed onto his enemies, destroying them. Water was the only defense he had against them, he had no other tools he could use to help in exterminating any kind of opposition that came his way. So with the small amount of water he could control, he managed to develop some effective distraction techniques and a couple of offensive ones.

So here he was chased by the monster to California, San Francisco (with a backpack that contained his few possessions) at daybreak. He had wandered about the city for a bit, taking in the sights (constantly traveling for a year does make you want to take it slow once in a while) stealing any supplies needed, like food, blankets, clothing (skills obtained through necessity and trial and error), and hiding from the occasional monster.

So it was on one of his sight-seeing that he found a blonde-haired girl covered with a large piece of a cardboard box for a meager amount for warmth lying on her side so he couldn't see her face.

He was interested in why did a girl who looked to be around the same age as him was alone in an alley. Is she a mortal who ran away from her family? Were they abusive or uncaring? Or maybe she's a brat who ran away from a loving family because she couldn't get what she wanted. Perhaps she's a demigoddess who ran from her family to save her family. Could… could she be just like him? Was her family killed by monsters and she was saved through the sacrifice of her family?

He took a closer look at her and found that her hair was as a curly as a princess's. Her clothes appeared to have been dirtied recently as the mud on them had mostly hardened. Suddenly the girl's face was scrunched together like she was seeing a bad memory and she was squirming, as if to shake off something that was trying to grab hold of her. She was saying things like "mother", "father why?", and other members of her family, almost all asked with questions in a voice that sounded so small and fragile. Percy grabbed her shoulders and started to shake her to wake her up from her nightmare.

Her eyes opened up quickly and were full of fright. She pushed his hands off of her shoulders and retreated to the opposite side the alley, away from him. He made to move closer to her, but she apparently took it as hostile movement as she ran away.

Not wanting this girl to go out alone, Percy ran after her.

They ran through several streets, couple of alleys, and a rounded a few corners '_Darn she's fast_'. The girl may have been fast, but she didn't have the stamina to follow through with it like Percy did, so she fell to the grass on a playground. Percy came to her and slowly came to face her. She flipped herself over and was trembling slightly from the lack of energy in her body. Soon she looked at him in the eye.

Now finally getting a clear look at her face, Percy noticed her hair had some dust bunnies and small amounts of dirt clinging to it. Her face had some dirt smears and mud on her face as well.

When he looked at her eyes, he was entranced by them. They were a pretty shade of grey that resembled storm clouds. But they held fear in them like she was an animal deer cornered by a lion '_probably_ _due_ _to the dream she had and the fact that I, someone she doesn't know, was chasing after her_'. Her eyes also seemed to be saying '_why_' amidst through the fear. At the question her eyes posed, Percy frowned. His frown only deepened when he saw that red tinged the edges of her eyes '_she must've cried a little while ago_'. Percy soon snapped out of his trance when he noticed that the girl stopped trembling.

"Hey who are you?" Percy said softly, while his eyes twinkled with kindness subconsciously, to show her that he isn't someone who wants to harm her. In fact he wanted to be her friend. Maybe it's because she looks so alone.

* * *

><p>Annabeth was pretty much afraid and confused today. She left <em>that house<em> yesterday and fell asleep in an alley, had a bad dreamed about all the time her family blamed her for things beyond her control, like monsters attacking them, and where her mother never listened to her pleas for help. Now she had woken up to a noise made by someone she didn't know. She ran from him due to her being scared of her dream and the fact that the stranger was trying to move closer to her. Her fear only grew when she found that the stranger ran after her and was in fact keeping up with her.

When she ran out of energy she was panicking on the inside, thinking why was her life like this, what did she do to deserve an uncaring family and to be chased by someone that might kill her. Not liking that she couldn't see her possible murderer, she flipped herself over and found that she was trembling a little. She moved her eyes towards the person who was chasing her

Annabeth saw that her pursuer is a boy who looked to be her age. He was wearing a ratty black shirt that looked to be two sizes too big for him. The pants he wore are a blue color with holes in them like he was running through a forest. He also had a backpack on. She moved her eyes to his face and saw that his face had dirt marks all over him '_he must be homeless_'. He also appeared to have a slight tan too. He also had black messy hair that looked like it couldn't be combed.

When she stared into his eyes, she was mystified. They were a beautiful sea-green color that held kindness in them. She betted that anyone who looked into them that they would find themselves being able to easily trust this kid. However when she looked a little harder at his eyes, she saw a hint of pain in them _'what is he hurting from?'_ Feeling strangely comforted by his eyes alone, she stopped trembling.

"Hey who are you" the boy with sea-green eyes said softly.

She didn't answer, not because she was afraid of him, no it was just that she was still weak from the combined exhaustion of running a long ways and from running away from her house hours ago.

He didn't seem to care that she didn't answer as he offered his hand and introduced himself "I'm Perseus Jackson, Percy for short."

I should've been wary of what his intentions were and if that was his real name, but something inside of me told me that I could trust him, that if I gave him a chance he could be my best friend; someone that would be able to give something my family didn't give me, a sense of belonging and comfort. I was all the more convinced that this mysterious voice inside of me was right when I took his hand and once more locked eyes with Percy. His eyes just looked too kind to be a part of some elaborate mask to deceive people for his advantage.


	4. Talking and Talking

**Child here and I come bearing a gift, the gift of Ch.4. Now all that's needed is a brilliant execution *closes eyes, takes a deep breath, then exhales and suddenly opens eyes* **

**ARE YOU READY CH.4!**

**Ch.4: SIR YES SIR**

**ALL RIGHT LET'S GO! *Child and Ch.4 are suddenly in jets and are starting to fly them**

**They twist and turn, do loop de loops, cross over each other. But they leave smoke behind them spelling out**

**Disclaimer: Child only writes _fanfics_ about Percy and friends (technically Percy and Annabeth), Rick Riordan made and owns the PJatO series and its characters**

**P.S. Ch.4 says Hi!**

As I stood up with help from Percy I start to wonder that since there's a big chance that he's homeless, if he'll keep me company as is run away from my family. I opened my mouth to speak but Percy beat me to it.

"Why were you sleeping in an alley? Don't you have a family that'll worry about you?"

At the mention of having a family that cares, my mood deflates and I feel my eyes starting to water. He must've noticed my change in attitude, as he spoke again.

"Whoa, um, please don't cry, I didn't mean to intrude on anything personal!"

I was somewhat amused at his trying to apologize to me, especially since he made funny hand gestures with a concerned face, a concerned face, something my family never gave me, but a boy that I barely met gives me his concern, funny.

"It's alright, it's not like you've known me for a couple of years. Besides I'm pretty sure that you aren't from around here." That was a statement, not a question as I'm pretty sure that I would've met someone like him before.

"No, I'm not. I'm just here passing through."

"Are you by yourself?" At this he gives me a surprised expression.

"How do you know?" He spoke with an incredulous voice.

What does he mean "how do you know?" Is this guy dumb or did he just look at his choice of clothing and thought _yes this doesn't seem too suspicious, no one will ever find out I'm either alone or homeless_. Never the less I didn't voice my thoughts and answered him.

"You don't look like you're from around here and kids our age don't just walk around town by themselves" I spoke while trying to choose with my words carefully "you aren't dressed in okay-conditioned clothing either." I didn't want to mention homeless lest bad memories resurface in his mind, like mine would should someone ask me if I was homeless.

He seemed to have caught what I was implying though as his face darkens a bit.

"Yea, I'm by myself, what about you? Are you by yourself too?"

"Y-yes I'm al- by myself too" I hope he didn't hear those mistakes; the last thing I need now is to have someone interrogate me.

* * *

><p>"Y-yes I'm al- by myself too"<p>

As she said this, I caught her stutter and that she was starting to say "alone". These mistakes led me to think that she and her family were in a bad situation. I remember when I was stuttering and almost saying words to curious adults; it was so hard to admit that I was alone, because it only reminded me that my mom was dead, never to come back… even though she said she would.

"Do you know where you're going now?" I decided not to call her out on it

"I, I don't know really" She seemed so lost now, her eyes look so sad and distant.

I really, _really_ wanted to tell her to come with me, but I don't think she's a demigoddess, so just by being with me she would be in more danger than any mortal would ever face. She might even end up dead. But what if she lives through the monsters, but becomes insane due to all the trauma. No, no matter how much I want her to come with me, she's better off without me.

"There's a nice orphanage near here that has great caretakers and nice children that you can be good friends with. But if you don't want to stay in 'Frisco then I know other nice orphanages in nearby towns."

Her eyes looked like she didn't approve of the thought of going to an orphanage, let alone even like the thought, but just a second later, curiosity seemed to flicker across her eyes.

"Hey if you know so many nice orphanages, then why are you here?"

"I have problems that I just can't let other people get involved in" I said while trying to be truthful, but not tell the entire truth (hey she looks like wouldn't trust people who lied to her and technically I didn't).

Despite me trying to be secretive, her expression tells me that I just gave her a jigsaw puzzle piece.

* * *

><p><em>Problems? Could it be monsters or does he have a mortal problem, getting easily angered, a weird habit , and stuff like that? If he's a demigod that means that I don't have to be alone.<em>

Annabeth was happy at this possibility and thusly wanted to learn more about Percy, in the hopes of finding out that he is a half-blood.

"What kind of problems? Are you ill? Are bad people chasing after you?"

At my questions, he seemed to be a little uneasy, but gave me an answer.

"No I'm not ill and I'm not being chased around by "bad people"

I caught the sarcastic remark, but it didn't seem so much like he was mocking me saying that he was being chased, more like it _something_ was chasing him.

"Oh, do you have special learning needs" I said innocently

"Nooo" he said it slowly, cautiously "that's not the problem I was speaking about, but I do have ADHD and dyslexia."

That cinches it, he's a demigod

* * *

><p>This girl was asking seriously strange questions. "Are you ill", "are you being chased", "do you have special learning needs" seriously it's like she knows I'm a demigod, but is just trying to make me confess to it. Is she a monster? As much as I don't want to believe it, I can't ignore this possibility. What she said next completely left me stunned, like I saw a dog ask me for a cookie.<p>

"Are you a demigod?"

I was flabbergasted, how does she know? I mean she could be a monster like I though before, but I still felt like that was wrong. With my mind blown, I looked at anything other than her, like the slides of the playground, the swings, or even the occasional squirrel, and I acted on instinct

"Huh how do you know? Uh I mean, what's a demigod, aren't they those kids of Greek dogs, I mean gods" The instincts of an idiot _Smooth Percy._

With eyes that held a look of triumph like she just beat someone at connect four by tricking them into making the wrong move, _her eyes also hold a bit of hope_. She also looked like she a hair width close to doing the happy dance.

"I knew it, you are a half-blood" her face was alight with joy, along with a smile to match.

"Huh? What's a half-blood?" I really wanted to know, 'cause I'm a demigod, not a half-blood. All that question earned me was a 'are you kidding me' look. It took her a while to figure out I wasn't kidding as she answered me.

"A half-blood is a demigod"

"Ohhh" was my intelligent reply

Rolling her eyes she quickly forgot how slow I was and quickly went back to the happy phase

"Oh my gods, this is so great!" Gods? She couldn't also be a…

"You're a demigod too?"

"_No_, I'm just a crazy mortal who's happy because I finally found proof that shows that I'm _not_ crazy in believing that the Greek Gods are real" Ouch, I could do without the sarcasm, but it got the message across.

"Who is your Greek parent?" I said recovering quickly from her last statement.

She gives me a look, _come to think she's been giving me a lot of looks,_ that said 'isn't it obvious'.

"My mom is Athena" she answered none the less, but with a bit of pride though.

"My dad is Poseidon" I said plainly, but she seemed to look a little surprised, and was that _hate_, but I must've imagined it as she quickly got this look on her face that looked like she was waiting for something.

"What"

"Aren't you going to say something about my mom being Athena and your dad being the sea god?"

"No" I said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You do know that my mom and your dad have a rivalry against each other, right?"

"Nope, but what does it have to do with us"

She looked at me like I clearly was not getting the whole point to this conversation.

"It has everything to do with us!"

"Really, how?" I said _clearly _not believing that a millennia's old grudge between our parents matters to us.

"It uh, uhmm," finally, for once throughout our talk, she was the one without a smart answer "by… our parents hate each other" she weakly said.

At this I let a smug expression grace my face "Exactly"

She bowed her head defeated, knowing what I meant by that word

"Fine your right" just the words I wanted to hear.

"_Seaweed brain_" she whispered. Huh, did she just call me "seaweed brain"

I need to find something to use on her "smart brain", no that's stupid, "smarty pants", ugh no too cliché. As I started to think of something to call her she notices the look on my face and quickly knew it meant that I heard her quiet comment. _Ugh! She has that smug look on her now. C'mon Percy think of something good! Make a comeback!_

I accidentally blurted out the name I had in my head, cursed ADHD.

"Wise Girl"

"Hmm, not bad, but not as good as seaweed brain" I take that back, thank you ADHD.

Silence hangs in the air over the playground for a few seconds with the Daughter of Athena looking like she had a million thoughts racing through her head. Soon the silence was broken by her.

"Hey Percy, would you like to run away with me?" Um was that the ADHD talking?

I felt heat rise in my cheeks and so did the blonde-haired girl's once she realized what she said.

"I-I meant since you're a half-blood and I'm a half-blood" she stopped as soon as she found out that what she was saying sounded similar to a cheesy pick up line. Needless to say our cheeks turned an even rosy color, if she kept saying stuff like that, then I'm pretty sure were going to reach a new shade of red.

"Th- that's not what I meant. What I meant was, was… Gods why is this so difficult! Percy will you accompany me while I'm traveling."

"Uhm, yes" I didn't say much as I was still trying to recover from what she said.

Time passed without them talking in the playground, the winds slightly pushed the swings, the leaves were rustling in the trees, and the sun was shining its brilliant rays of light.

They made a silent agreement to put the embarrassment behind them. They walked out the playground together without a word, until suddenly Percy remembered he never heard the girl's name. So he asked her and she turned her head with a smile and said

"Annabeth, Annabeth Chase."

Annabeth. What a pretty name.


	5. Golden Gate Bridge

**Child here at the paintball gun arena facing off against my good friend Ch.5. Well he's good most of the time, except in games, he can be pretty competitive **

**"THERE YOU ARE!" *shoots off three paintballs**

**Yikes! *runs towards cover like a frightened Child***

**"YOUR NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASILY!" *magically produces a weird looking object from his pocket and takes something off it, throwing a second later***

**That doesn't look to good *runs from one cover to the next while dodging paint from Ch.5, seconds later an big splat was heard***

**What the- *paint hits the wall near him spelling**

**Disclaimer: Child doesn't own PJatO or its characters, they belong to Rick Riordan **

Annabeth and I left the playground a good ten minutes after I learned her name. As we were walking I was wondering where Annabeth was leading me to. I mean she was the first to walk and she walked with so much assurance that it made me believed that she knew someplace to go to.

"So Seaweed Brain where are we going?" yeah that pretty much ruined the nice picture I painted for myself.

"Huh, what do you mean "where are we going?" Aren't you the one leading?"

"No, I was following you."

"But I thought you were leading, you seem so sure of yourself, I mean the way you walked was like you were the one in charge here."

"Percy, I'm just a little girl who's was by herself for barely a day and you're someone who's been doing this for, for, for how long now?"

"A year now" As those bitter words left my mouth my face darkened for a bit, it was still kind of hard not to be hurt that my mom is dead.

"Sorry" she notices his slight change in mood and decides to change the subject

"Hey can we head to the Golden Gate Bridge"

"Why" he still seemed to be lingering on his last feeling, but it seemed he was allowing the change in subject.

"I want to see it because it's amazing!"

"About as amazing as a bridge can be." Grumbled Percy

"Ow! What was that for!" he said whilst glaring at her and holding his shin hopping on one foot, any trace of his darken attitude gone.

"Hmph, that was for insulting something as great as the Golden Gate Bridge, then again you are a Seaweed Brain, maybe I should've let it slide."

"At least I have a brain blondie"

Narrowing her grey eyes blonde-haired girl said with a dangerous edge to her voice "Just what are you trying to say Perseus."

Her tone and the use of his full name made Percy flinch, but none the less he stood his ground like the Seaweed Brain he is.

"You know what I'm saying blondie or could you not figure out what I meant _Wise_ Girl."

They glared at each other for a few seconds before their facial expressions changed. Both of their faces showed that they were putting a great effort into holding something back, but a few seconds later they burst into laughter. They laughed for a couple of minutes before they regained their ability to speak.

"You're alright Jackson" Annabeth said with a grin

"You too Chase" I replied with a similar looking grin

"But if you pull that blonde bit on me again, I'll make sure to teach you a lesson" She said in a sickenly sweet voice that bred fear inside me

"Y-yes mam"

There was a pause between them before Annabeth spoke up

"You know you didn't answer me when I asked if we could see the Golden Gate Bridge"

"Hmm I didn't? I was pretty sure I gave you my answer when I showed just how _happy_ I was at the thought of walking to some bridge just to look at it" I teased

"Well you might want to reconsider your answer the next morning when you find yourself tied upside-down from a tree branch." mischief flashed through her eyes.

At this I froze, I may have met her just today but I could tell that she could and _would_ follow through with her threat, the mischief that flashed through her eyes just made it all the more believable.

She apparently noticed my stupor as she chuckled a bit.

"You know I'm kidding _right_?"

I wanted to tell her _no _but instead I decided I didn't want to delve into any more possible dangers.

"Yeah"

"Sooo"

"Sooo what?"

"Can we go to the bridge" she said in a hopeful tone with big pleading grey-eyes.

_Aww, why did she have to put that face on, I was going to say yes anyway, but just looking at her with that expression makes me wish I said yes earlier_

"Yes"

She squealed, loudly I might add "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Now come on!"

She grabbed my wrist led me towards the bridge at high speed. It was a good thing too as if she didn't grab my wrist, I would've stood still where I was at thinking what I'm thinking right now _What happened to the smart, witty girl?_

* * *

><p>Oh my gods! I'm going to see the Golden Gate Bridge!<p>

I led Percy through the streets of San Francisco. He seemed absorbed in his mind, but there wasn't anything that showed he was thinking of bad things, so I didn't pay him much attention.

I can see the top of it! Were almost there! I've _so _wanted to see for years now, but my family wouldn't let me go out and "endanger other people".

But all that doesn't matter now, I'll finally be able to gaze upon its form!

At this thought I upped my speed and half led, half dragged Percy to the base of it, away from the road so as to not get ran over by cars or by people who would only cause us trouble by asking us questions like "where are your parents".

We were close to the water and I let go of Percy's wrist as I was starting to look over the landmark with a critical eye, trying to savor and remember every little detail of this amazing structure before me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Percy was looking at the bridge for a bit before he averted his gaze from it, _Such a seaweed brain, he can't even see that this is a great monument_. A little later though, I caught him looking at the water under the bridge, he looked kind of sad with disappointment in his eyes, along with a bit of hope in there too.

_Why is he looking at the ocean? Wait he said his father is Poseidon, it's kind of hard to remember that since he doesn't show any of his powers. _

I broke out of my reverie over the bridge and walked over to Percy. I was about to touch his shoulder when I heard hissing.

***Child has successfully escaped from Ch.5's line of sight and is holding his paintgun tightly***

**He has paint grenades! How does he have paint grenades, i didn't even know they made them! **

***peeks out from cover and aims at Ch.5's figure***

**I win**

***Shoots five paintballs at Ch.5 hitting right on the back***

**That's how you play the game. Anyways I've wanted to write some action scene sometime in the near future in my fanfic and I now I can! Yay! Also thanks to all the people that took notice of this story, I appreciate it very much =). Also since I'm somewhat paranoid, I hoped no one minded the blonde bit, I didn't mean anything by it. If i get like 5 complaints I'll remove it. **


	6. Battle

**"Ch.6 here, sorry Child couldn't come as he's "tied up" for the moment" *Ch.6 grumbles _that's what you get for stealing my cookie* _**

**_"_But anywho here I am and I am wonderful!"**

**No you aren't *Child hissed as he slams the door open with a paintball gun in his hand***

**"Uh-oh this doesn't look very good, well I'll just say this and get going**

**Disclaimer: Child doesn't own PJatO or its characters, Rick Riordan does**

**That's all ladies and gents" *runs off***

**GET BACK HERE! *sounds of paintballs hitting various surfaces were heard throughout the day***

I was about to touch Percy's shoulder when I heard hissing. I spun my head quickly and saw a lady with straight black hair that reached to her shoulders. This wasn't an ordinary lady though as her pupils were slits, she was wearing Greek armor with a sword in her hand and a shield in the other, both at the ready. But her most outstanding feature was that her bottom half was a snake, with scales, slimy surface, and all. The worst thing about this monster wasn't that she didn't necessarily need her nose to find her victims, her eye sight was fine (which were trained on Percy and I) to scour the area for delicious half-bloods to kill and eat, no it was that they could think unlike other monsters.

"Percy" I call with all the composure I could muster. I kept my eyes on the menacing slow advancement of the foe, despite my fear demanding me to turn and run, as I didn't want to give her an advantage.

"Percy" I called again, this time with a little bit of fright creeping into my voice, he didn't seem to have heard me the first time around.

Still he didn't even seem to know that we were about to be killed by something the mortals would see more than likely as a hoodlum with a gun.

The she-viper suddenly sped forward at an amazing speed with her sword held over her head and her shield in front of her to be used as battery ram/protection.

"PERCY" I let my fear come out as much it wanted to now, I didn't care about trying to act brave now, I mean neither one of us has a way to kill this thing right?

I closed my eyes just as I saw Percy turn his head with shock. I was waiting for cold metal to slice through me and for the snake-woman to whisper some threat, but neither ever came.

Curious, I opened my eyes to see water floating in midair with a section of the sword (which I might add was very, _very _close to my face) in it, somehow holding it back.

I was stunned, there was _water_ holding back a sword and from the look on the snake woman's face, was holding it pretty tightly too. _Wh-who _remembering I had a son of Poseidon as a travel buddy, I whipped my head so fast I swear I could've gotten whiplash and sure enough, Percy looked to be concentrating on something with one of his fist clenched in front of him.

He made movement with his hand as if to yank something out, shortly after the hand gesture, I heard a scream of anger from behind me. Suddenly I saw a shadow pass over me and landing just about five inches clattering on the ground from me was a sword.

Quickly I jumped away from where I was as I did the math: a snake-warrior with sword and shield – sword being taken away rudely= Angry snake-woman without a sword but still armed with _sharp _nails and a shield.

As I got up from the grass I saw that the water in the air was making a back-handed motion as it hit the snake-lady on the left cheek, sending her spiraling to the ground face first, all that did was make her even angrier. But just as she was getting back to her feet- _er tail_, the water nose-dived like a plane and hit her straight in the face. She screamed in agony _Why is she screaming, isn't it just wa t e r. Wait the only source of water here is the ocean! Salt water! _

Percy didn't let up though as he struggled to put the water as high into the air as he could, condensed it, and sent it plummeting down to Earth, using the water ball's shadow to aim for her head.

"Stupid Seaweed Brain! Just because its shadow is on her face that doesn't mean it'll fall there!"

* * *

><p>Annabeth was right as instead of hitting the snake woman's head, it hit her stomach, <em>ouch none the less though<em>. I swore I saw her eyes pop out of her skull_._ The water didn't fly back up in the air again to continue its assault, it just fell to the grass.

But it didn't break the armor on the monster, it only caused a crack in it _maybe if he did the same thing again, it'll break_.

The monster was lying on the ground trying to catch her breath, Percy was doing the same thing, _must take a lot of energy to control the water_.

The two was getting for round as the snake-lady got up, albeit shakily, with murder in her eyes. Percy met her gaze and grinned at her, to show he thought nothing of her. Snake didn't like that too much apparently as she threw her shield like a heavy Greek Frisbee at his head. She charged at him while he ducked to escape getting damage to his head. She swiped to the right with her deadly nails, only for Percy to use his forearms and legs to push himself backwards, only getting grazed on his right arm.

Percy pushed his hand in back of him, which made ocean behind him ripple a bit. But the water didn't rise as the snake-woman stroke out again, knowing what he was planning to do and not liking the thought of taking a rough shower of pain again. He rolled away, completely escaping harm. He kept on dodging as best as he could from the she-viper's attack, getting a nick here and a graze there.

The lady-snake swiped Percy's legs out from underneath him with her tail, bringing him crashing to the floor.

Annabeth's eyes widened, her newly found friend was on the ground while his opponent was preparing for her next strike. The Daughter of Athena found a rock near her, took aim, and threw it at the creature's head. It struck true; it wasn't enough to seriously harm it, but enough to get her attention.

The she-viper's eyes were now looking upon the blonde-haired girl that dared to interrupt her kill. The creature's attention was distracted long enough for Percy to reach out to the ocean and brought out a stream to bring the monster's body tumbling down onto the floor. Then Percy wrapped the saltwater around the monster's tail, raised her high in the sky several times, and each time brought her back to Earth, hard. But at the end the snake-woman laid upon the ground with her eyes closed, armored broken beyond repair, and Percy was breathing heavily.

* * *

><p>I looked at Percy to say thanks for saving me, but he looked exhausted and sweaty. I looked into his eyes that held a certain fear in them, <em>why,<em>_didn't he kill it_?

I heard panting from behind me and so I turned to face a tired, beaten, but still alive snake-woman. She looked at Percy to see if he could still bring out a beating like the one she just went through, but guessing from her eerie smile, she saw he couldn't. Then she looked at me and dared me to try something. I decided not to do anything, at least _right now_. I guessed she figured that I didn't pose a threat as she sauntered on over to Percy. She was confident of her victory, I just wished I could've bluffed about my battle skills to unnerve her from attacking us, but seeing as how I just threw a rock at her instead of joining in their fight, she knew where my abilities where and bluffing would only make her keep an eye on me.

She slithered slowly to Percy, passing me by even as she was more concerned about the kid who hurt her. I panicked for him, I didn't want him to die! Thinking quickly, thinking about anything that might help me either kill her or distract her from Percy. She was closing in on him as he weakly tries to walk away from her, all the while sending me glances that cried '_leave me and save yourself'_. Those glances alone made me want to save him all the more as we may have just met this morning but he still cared more for me than himself.

I looked desperately around for anything that might help me, and soon enough I caught sight of the forgotten sword. I ran to it and lifted it despite it being heavy enough to strain my arms, I turned in the direction of the snake and aimed the point of the sword at her and charged with a cry. She was alarmed to my cry and turned around just in time for her own sword to be driven straight through where I thought her heart would be.

She looked at me and the sword stunned for a minute, scaring me as it didn't seem so much as to hurt her than stun her. But weirdly, she just disintegrated to dust with a scream.

I dropped the sword from my hands once I was sure she was gone and it wasn't jus tone of her powers and ran to Percy who was bleeding not a lot of blood, but enough to look like he had a rough day. He seemed tired and a little shaken, I mean who wouldn't be after almost being killed by a snake woman that would've clawed you to death. He suddenly sat down on the grass and I sat down next to him. We stayed like that for a bit while he regained his energy.

"Thanks for saving me" were the first words that he spoke

"Hey, you protected me from her first so no thanks is needed"

"Well I couldn't let you get killed, especially not if I could help it."

"I'm glad that you feel that way as if you didn't… well you'd have been walking out of this place alone."

"It's nice to know that won't happen."

Silence hung in the air as I was thinking about how my life would be like on the road with Percy. I noticed Percy was looking at the sword that had belonged to the snake-woman as if he was considering on bringing it with us.

"We can't use that sword"

"Huh, what do you mean? Why can't we use that sword? Wouldn't it help us in fending the Greek monsters off?"

"It would, but that's only if you or I can actually hold it without falling down though"

"Oh"

"Yeah oh"

Silence resumes again, but only for a short amount of time

"Hey Annabeth"

"Yeah"

"I need to go take a dip in the ocean, but it seems as though my legs won't listen to me" he said while rubbing his head

Honestly why is he looking slightly embarrassed, I mean I know I would ordinarily chew him out for wanting to take a swim after fighting for our lives, but you would think he understood that I was smart enough to believe that it might help him with him being Poseidon's kid and all.

I proffered a hand for him and he gladly took it. Putting his arm around me (getting my nice PJs bloodied) I led him towards the waters and eased him into it.

I had an inkling that the water might help him with his injuries, but I thought that it would act like a painkiller, so needless to say, my jaw was hanging wide open when I saw his cuts HEALING right before my eyes.

My jaw was still hanging when he was fully healed and stepped out of the pool. He noticed my condition and with a smirk, he pushed my jaw back in and spoke

"You know that a poor fly might wander into your mouth and end up buzzing around inside your head."

That snapped me out of it as I glared at him.

My glare only deepened as his response was to laugh.

Suddenly he sobered up

"We should get you new clothes and get out of town; I don't want to stick around too long in one place for the resident monsters to notice us"

* * *

><p>The sun was already starting to go down when we were walking down the street that leads straight out of San Francisco after Percy stole me some clothing and a backpack from a local clothes store.<p>

I looked back at the town I've lived in for seven years and whispered a good bye before turning my head and never looking back again.

**Well my first fight scene has been made, hoped I didn't do bad. Anyway I know Percy was fighting kind of... unprofessionally (is that the word) but I'm just making his maturity and age being the reason for his current control over his powers. Child over and out.**


	7. What do you do In San Jose?

**"Hey there it's Ch. 7 filling in for Child as he's busy listening to his Ipod, loudly"**

**'Someone once told me, love will..."**

**"Well any ways heres the disclaimer and me" *smiles***

**Disclaimer: Child writes fanfics about PJatO, Mr. Rick Riordan owns PJatO and its characters**

**'Watch as we all fly away...'**

**"Will you turn that down!"**

**Annabeth's POV**

"**Welcome to San Jose"**

These were the words that I was first greeted on my second day of running away. Normally most kids running away from home without any money wouldn't be able to reach this place in the afternoon from San Francisco when the sun was setting, but most kids don't have a son of Poseidon for a friend. We were walking down the road when Percy decided to go off the road head left, towards the San Francisco Bay. He had brought us there so we could avoid running into monsters and to reach the next city faster. When I asked how, all he did was dig though his back pack and brought out an inflatable rubber raft along with a pump that requires someone to push down on the handle to pump air into something. So when Percy had finished getting enough air into the raft, it was nighttime and I had already fallen asleep (I counted the number of stars in the constellations instead of counting sheep). I had woken up comfortably with a blanket and a small pillow under my head. I had wondered who did this when I saw him sleeping on the grass shivering with his back facing me; I had added two and two together and figured out that he had given me them. I got out the blanket, folded it and placing it on top of the pillow, and walked over to him.

As I walked over to him and bent down to gently wake him up, I saw a bit of drool coming from his mouth _'Well I could've gone without that sight, oh well just something to tease him about when he wakes up.'_

I softly shake him, but to no avail as he just lies there making his drool pool grow bigger. I shake him a little longer before getting frustrated that my attempts to wake him kindly were for nothing. I start to shake him rougher, but all that I got was him sleepily slapping away my arm (is it already second-nature for him to give me a hard time). Now becoming irritated, I decide to march to the water near by, take some into my hand, and I walk back to him. I smile thinking that this will wake him up, I drop it on his face, only to find that he is completely dry, though he moved a bit. Stupid son of Poseidon, he just had to have the ability to not get wet from water. So as it appears that conventional means were out the window that means that unless I used drastic measures I won't be able to rouse the Seaweed Brain. Well it's not like monsters are just going to come out the woods so I don't really have to wake him. I decided to just take a look around the place before Sleeping Beauty wakes from his slumber.

I wandered a little bit into the woods to see the healthy green colors of the trees, the different kinds of birds making the nest on the trees, the cool shade provided by the trees, and gentle caress if the winds. I looked around a bit, seeing birds go off into the sky, see some come back with twigs to build their nests with and, and a squirrel eating an acorn. I eventually pushed back a bush to see trees looking like they'd been slashed with swords, though some looked to have been clawed at, a few trees were broken. I also saw a couple of footprints impressed in the earth, it wasn't human footprints though, it looked more like a dog's, a _big_ dog.

I knew that this scene was brought from a half-blood or two fighting a hellhound, I wondered if they had stolen swords from snake-women. As I was thinking about how long ago this must've happened I was broken out of my thoughts when I heard Percy shouting for me.

"Annabeth! Annabeth! Annnnaaaabbbeeetthh! You here?"

"Yes Percy I'm here!"

I walked towards where I heard his voice. I had only walked a little bit when I saw him with relief etched on his face when he saw me.

"What are doing here Wise Girl?"

"I was looking around the forest for a bit until you woke up"

"Huh, did you have a good nature walk then"

"Yes, but I would've preferred looking at buildings and monuments if had the chance though"

"Why do you like looking at things that don't move? I could understand of you were looking at a game store, but looking at a regular building, that's as fun as looking at paint drying."

I gave him a glare at mentioning that architecture was boring, especially for comparing it watching paint dry.

"Because Seaweed Brain unlike you, I can see the greatness in them."

He just rolled his eyes

"Yeah buildings that you see in every city are so great, especially the apartments, now those are just _awesome_"

"You're just too shallow to look at the underneath of things aren't you?"

"Not really because in case you didn't know, ADHD doesn't exactly allow me to focus on something for too long"

"That's not an excuse because in case you've already forgotten I also have ADHD"

"Wise Girl"

"Seaweed Brain... you drool in your sleep."

"What!"

With those words we walked back to the raft and rode southwards to San Jose, where we are right now.

We were walking into the town when I my stomach growl, loudly. I hoped that Percy wasn't listening so he wouldn't comment on it.

"Hmm did you hear that Annabeth, that sounded like a grizzly bear" he stated with a smirk, looks like hoping wasn't enough.

"Be quiet!" I hissed with a flushed face

He walked to a patch of grass all the while laughing.

Sometimes I wish that I could strangle him.

* * *

><p><strong>Percy's POV<strong>

Ha ha ha, that was funny, but her stomach had the right idea though, we should eat something as we didn't even have breakfast. I walked down to a nice patch of grass and sat down to go through my backpack to find the blanket and some food I know stored a while ago.

"Ah ha!" I pull out the blanket and the food

I set everything up while Annabeth is looking at my direction with hungry eyes, it gave me goose bumps, especially since it looks like she was going to destroy everything in her path to her quest for food.

So I decided to move to the side and pat on the space next the space next to me. Apparently she didn't need much incentive as she ran next to me, hastily sat down, and started to eat fast. After five mintues pased she seemed to remember that wasn't proper eating manner when in the presence of another as she suddenly stopped, regained her composure, and resumed eating again like she wasn't being a bottomless pit a while ago.

Once we finished eating we headed straight for the city once more

* * *

><p>We went down a couple of blocks, moved across streets, until we came to an abrupt stop when Annabeth caught sight of a big white building that had a sign that looked to be<p>

RD. INRMAT HREULT GKNI, RJ RABILRY

I was trying to make sense of what it said before Annabeth apparently figured it out as she walked slowly towards. She took a couple more steps before she looked behind me and beckoned for me to come.

"Why?"

"Percy this is a library and I want to see if I could read some of the books inside, because even though we are on the run from monsters, a daughter of Athena never skips out on a chance for learning more."

"Your not going to want to go to every library we see, right?" I asked nervously, afraid that the answer would be yes

She just rolls her eyes at me "No Seaweed Brain"

I would've teased her for contradicting her previous sentence, but she would probably beat me a battle of words again, so I walked silently inside the building with her.

We were greeted by a perky librarian woman

"Welcome to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library!" she said in an excited hushed voice

"Hello, miss. Can you help me find where the books about sciences and math are?" Annabeth said mirroring the hushed voice

"Sure, it's on the third floor" The librarian said with the same enthusiasm as when she greeted us. She didn't even seem to notice that me and Annabeth looked liked we were living out on the streets.

Annabeth said her thanks and walked straight to the stairs, beginning her ascent to knowledge while I began my descent to boredom.

* * *

><p>Annabeth made herself comfy on a chair with several books about different fields of science and math stuff like algebra and geometry, you know the kind of books kids read when they're seven, surrounding her on the table like a fort.<p>

"molecules stay together due to... the kinetic energy forces them apart... moves away from each other and freezes..."

I on the otherhand was slumped in my chaired on the other side of her trying to remember when was the last time I felt the wind on my skin.

"Annabeth" no answer

"Annabeth" she didn't make any movements save for when she was flipping a page in her book, or when she was trying to trace a sentence with her finger to try and help her make sense of a word.

"Annie" she was safe from my verbal attacks on reading from behind Fort E=MC2

Left without any advice, got off my chair and wandered the floor in hopes of finding something interesting

I looked around a bit finding books that I didn't like, like "Advanced Physics", "The Genetic Make-up of the Human body", and "The Theory of Evolution", personally I would've settled for a book that said "Complicated stuff about how the world works" (at least how the mortals thinks it works).

I was thinking about giving up on finding that one book for me when i saw a book that had a picture of a paper airplane looking like it was flying through the air, the title of it was "Simple Aerodynamics"

I was hooked on the picture, but I was lined and sunk on the word "simple". Finally a book I could read and actually be interested in!

I took the book from it's shelf and tried to commit it to memory of where it belonged, before heading for my table with Annabeth. I opened the book and with some effort on trying to figure out what the words were (all thanks to dyslexia), I found it was simple, it was only made more easier and interesting when I saw it using how to make a paper airplane as an example. I took some paper from my backpack and read the book a little more before folding the paper. Minutes later, I finished making my air plane. i was eager to test it out so I looked for a good target and quickly laid my eyes on the studious form of Annabeth.

I took aim with mirth then I let it fly out of my hands, appreciating how smoothly and quickly it glided through the air and hit Wise Girl on the head.

She looks up at me with an annoyed look "Percy why are you making airplanes in a _library, _you should be reading a book, like I am." she picks one of her books and shows it to me.

"But Annabeth I am. That airplane was something that I learned from the book I'm reading" I say with an innocent voice

She peers over Fort E=MC2 and sees the "Simple Aerodynamics" with the paper airplane being used as an example

She justs sits back in her chair "You still shouldn't be making them or throwing air planes at people."

"I wasn't throwing them, I was making them fly."

She pays me no mind as she got back to reading.

* * *

><p>We leave that place after she makes a pryramid for herself out of books. I wanted to go somewhere fun, especially after being cooped in the library for several hours, the only fun I was having was with the air planes and the book. We went walking down the block where we saw a museum that had something that resembled a man but with red, blue, and brown colors on it, with it holding a yellow circle with a triangle in it. It seemed like it would be an okay museum to check out, but I didn't have the money to enter it and I didn't want to break into it just to look at a bunch of pictures, sculptures, and models. The museum didn't seem to have caught Annabeth's eye so we walked passed it, though I did see some strange looking pigeons on it.<p>

Walking a little further I see something that excites me: fountains of water jutting up from the ground!

I start to run towards it like the kid I am and barely remebering that I had my backpack still on me, I put it off of me quickly and start to play in the water.

A couple minutes of splashing goes around before I notice that Annabeth was at the side of the fountains with my backpack in hand, looking like she wanted to join in on the fun, but was afraid to get her clothes wet... Wait don't I have the ability to dry things, oh this will be good.

I come closer to her with my arms open and she just looks at me confused at first before she starts to get what I'm going to do.

"No, no, stay away from me Percy. Percy don't, Percy!" she took a step away each time she said my name, before making a dash away from me when I started to run at her.

The chase didn't last though as she had my bookpack holding her down, so she got a very wet hug from me. When I stepped back to admire my work and she turned around to face me, I saw the look on her face and let me just say it was _priceless_. She had a look of shock on her face with her eyes wide open as is she couldn't believed that I actually did that to her, thenher face wuickly turned red and her eyes flashed with murder.

"SEAWEED BRAIN!" she then attempted to hit me on the head with my heavy back pack, oh yeah she was mad.

I ran back to the fountains laughing with a very angry Wise Girl hot on my trail, waving my backpack like it was a mace she was intending to smash me with.

When I was into the fountain I kept on running as I wasn't stupid enough to think that she wouldn't enter now as she is wet (thanks to me). When I looked back over my shoulder I saw that I was right. I turned my head back to avoid running into anything, big mistake. I was running for a bit before I feel something hit me on my back and I fell because of that something. When i saw what hit me, it was my backpack, which means that-

"SPLASH"

I got a facefull of water and it kept coming while Annabeth was getting her revenge. Soon though I counter-attacked and splashed her with water and so the water fight began. I must say that I was a perfect gentleman though as I didn't even used my powers at all during the water fight (though Annabeth got more wet then me).

We were playing when suddenly we heard a shrieking noise come from the sky. Annabeth and I turned our heads up to see bronze-looking birds flapping their wings menacingly in the air, _Stymphalian Birds._

They were making a nose dive for us and Annabeth looked at me with a little fear in her eyes, asking me how was I going to deal with them. With a sigh I controlled the water and made it float in the air and spread it out. Annabeth looked like she was wondering what I was doing, but she knew soon what I was doing as I lauched the sheet of water in the air and doused the birds with it. Most of the birds had their feathers become heavy with the water and they were still a goof height in the air, so they came crashing down to earth and flying back into the wind again as dust. The ones that evaded my wet attack saw what happened to their comrades with a few movements from my hands and then looked at me, soon they started sqwaking to each other, as if debating what to do. Soon though they came with the decision to fly away with their feathers dry and the bodies still intact.

I looked to Annabeth to see if she had anything to say, only to met with water in my face.

"Nice job hero" she stated with a grin

Then she wet me some more and our fight continued

**Some of the places I mentioned are real, but I don't really know much about them so as I may have tried looking them up on the computer (I don't live in California) but I couldn't get any specific information, so I tried to make somethings up. **


	8. Good Day

**Hello Child here and I want to say that I'm sorry that I wasn't making any new chapters for any of my stories as I'm very easy to get lost in the sea of fanfiction. So here I am preeeeseeeeeennnnnnttttting Chaaaaapteeeeeeerrrrr. 8 *A spotlight shines on a spot with confettie being shot, yet Ch.8 doesn't appear***

**Ummm Ch.8 you're being called *some noise is being made behind a closed door***

**Ch.8 *getting closer to the door, until Child opens it to see Ch. 8 hunched over something speaking unintelligibly* **

**Ch. 8 *reaches hand out to Ch. 8 till Ch. 8's head suddeny turns to look at Child***

**"Master left Kreacher, Kreacher alone for years."**

**Umm you were just made**

**"No deny Kreacher's birth!"**

**Okaaayyy this is getting creepy anyway here's the disclaimer**

**"No deny Kreacher's right!"**

**Percy Jackson and the Olympians and its characters are owned and created by Rick Riordan. Also the name Kreacher belongs to J.K. Rowling**

* * *

><p><strong>Percy's POV<strong>

A couple of minutes later after our water fight, we were starting to get bored as believe or not a son of Poseidon can get tired of spending time with water. So as were entering the final stage of our battle, we made an unspoken agreement with out eyes to stop throwing water for a minute. We looked at each other up and down, pretending to size the other up, and then we walked around in a circle slowly with our hands near our pockets, like how the cowboys do in a Western movie. We stopped, narrow our eyes in an attempt to intimidate the other, we stayed like that for a couple seconds with our hands twitching. Then in a flash, our hands reached for the nearest fountain of water and pushed some of it to the other.

"AH-HA! Got you first!" Annabeth yells victoriously

"No you didn't! I got you first!" I shout back in hopes that she could be fooled

"No I clearly saw the water hitting you in the face before you got me in the chest!"

"Uh-uh"

"Oh are you saying that you were trying to cheat by making the water go slower"

"No I didn't!" That was when I realized that she wouldn't be fooled, so I raised my hands up in surrender

With a smirk forming on her face, she spoke "You really should know that a Seaweed Brain couldn't possibly fool a Daughter of Athena into believing that you won."

"Yea, I really should know that a Seaweed Brain couldn't fool a Wise Girl" I said with a grin.

She returned the grin and handed me my book bag. With my bag on my back, I left the water fountains with her sopping wet, all the while beginning the plan that I had in my head ever since I decided to hug her.

* * *

><p><strong>Annabeth's POV<strong>

That was the most fun I ever had in my whole life! Playing in the water fountains with Percy even beats the first time I entered a library (which was the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library). Aaah, it seems that my life is going uphill ever since I met Percy. Even though it still hurts that my own father chose my step-mom over me.

We are currently walking across a street with several people giving us weird looks, no doubt wondering why a couple of kids are walking by themselves drenched in water. Sure it was fun playing with water, but after walking a couple of minutes in wet clothes and shoes, it starts to get annoying, especially with the squishing noise from the shoes.

You know that I'm thinking about it, I'm starting to notice that the squishing noise from Percy's shoes are slowly, but gradually, becoming quiet. I look over at him and see that he isn't as wet as I am, in fact he almost looks dry.

He catches me looking at me and with a voice that sounds very innocent he speaks to me.

"What are you looking at?"

"Just looking at how you seem to be dryer than me" I say with an inquisitive stare

I could see that the corner of his lips are struggling to stay straight. I could already make a guess as to why he's no longer looks like he was on a slip n' slide several times, but I still want to hear a confirmation from him.

"How are you dryer than me?"

"Oh you don't know?" He still has that innocent tone

I nod at him, I start to see that the corner of his lips are slowly being tugged into a grin

"Well the sun is high in the sky," He points to the big yellow ball in the sky" shining its warm beams of light, causing the water on my clothes to become water vapor and leave my clothes."

I roll my eyes at his clearly false answer "Percy you know that's a lie."

"What that the sun dries clothes." He gives me an amused tone now

"Percy you know what I'm talking about." I'm getting annoyed with his game.

"No Annabeth I don't know what you're talking about." He speaks with a fake confused expression on his face.

Deciding that he was going to continue playing his games with me, I just focused my mind on where we're going next.

It was only after crossing a few more streets did I notice that my clothes were dryer.

"Thank you" A smile was gracing my face which I doubt Percy saw.

* * *

><p>We walked further along the streets of San Jose just making a few jokes and me staring at a couple of the buildings, just trying to see how some of them were made.<p>

Percy and I eventually made our way to a park where there were swings, slides, monkey bars, and a jungle gym.

Percy broke into a run for the monkey bars, leaving me to go on the slides. I walked towards it seeing all the slides that they had, some were spirals, some curved up and down, and others were just the straight, flat boring slides.

Deciding that I should go in order from boring to the most fun, I went on each individual slides a couple of times before I got bored and went to the next one. I was just finished going down on the spiral slide and looking about the park for something else that was fun when something grabbed from behind, pinned me, and started to tickle me.

"Tickle, tickle, tickle" Percy's excited voice came from above as his hands tickled the side of my ribs.

I started laughing for awhile before I tried to flip myself over to one-up Percy.

Unfortunately he had me firmly pinned to the ground, I swear I was going to die laughing if I can't get him off me soon.

Just as it seemed that the tickle torture would never stop, I felt that the pin came a little loose, so taking advatnage of that, I gave one giant heave and managed to shove my friend off of me. I got up and saw that he was scrambling to get up, oh he _so _was not getting away from me. I tackled him to the ground just as he finally got up and landed with his back on the ground.

I gave him a taste of his own medicine as I started to tickle him and sure enough he was laughing with his arms trying to get me off of him.

We eventually got tired of rolling over, getting the advantage over the other, all the while getting wood chips and dirt on us. We laid on the ground looking at the clouds, pointing out that one cloud looked like a dog, another looked like a sword, and another looked like hands. Percy lifted his head to look around us, which wasn't much as the park didn't have much visitors and the wind seemed almost non-existent. However he eventually spotted something he wanted to do, got up, and much to my chargin (as I was so relaxed laying on the ground), pulled my hand to bring along to whatever he wanted to do.

He was dragging me to a swingset.

He let go of my hand and then went onto a swing for himself and was somewhat looking expectantly at me. I knew what he wanted me to do, but it was so nice laying on the ground. Oh well he's probably going to "convince" later, might as well get on a swing. That doesn't mean that I couldn't mess with him for a bit.

I walked over to the swing next to him and just sat there with him looking at me. There was a pause for a couple of minutes before Percy broke it.

"Aren't you going to swing." He asked with a truly curious voice.

"Well aren't you going to push me?" I would never have someone push me on a swing as I could use a swing properly thank you very much, but I wanted to make him sweat for that small prank he pulled on me earlier.

"No" He didn't say like he would hate to do it, but was slightly confused. Huh guess he already has good grasp on my personality. Well it's either that or he's just dense, like every other boy.

"You know that it's an unspoken rule that boys always push the girl on a swing" I notice that his eyes seemed to be a little worried, oh I was going to have fun messing with him.

"No it's not, boys don't push girls on a swing, that job belongs to the parents" His eyes seemed to be slightly sad when he mentioned "parents". Annabeth you better changed the subject from parents before you do something to upset your friend.

Putting on a mask of horror I said "You didn't know."

"Know what?" His face scrunches up, a sign that he's trying to rack his mind looking for some fake rule about girls being pushed by boys on the swings.

"Oh Percy this is a sad day. It is indeed a sad day when a boy doesn't know the unspoken, but very well-known rule that boys are expected to push girls on swingsets." I said with a hint of drama. To make the mood even more dramatic, I put my hand to my face.

Looking at the opening between my fingers, I see something that made me smile. I see Percy sitting on the swing, sweating.

With a nervous gulp he spoke in a small voice " Really?"

"Yes Percy really" I say exasperated

There was a silence while Percy was trying to process all the information in his head. Once he was done getting through all the information in his head, he got up from his swing, went behind me, and started to push me. That wasn't part of the plan, the plan was for me to make him sweat a little and when he tried to push me, I would tell him it was a joke and that he didn't have to push me, we laugh and swing together. But when he walked towards me and just as I was about to tell him it was a joke, some invisible force stopped from telling him. Instead I allowed him to actually push me on the swingset, something I that I would normally never let anyone do as I hated having to be lifted into the air because someone else caused me to go up, not myself. But when Percy started to push, I didn't feel the usual resentment, when he started to push me a little farther in the sky I started to like it, When I was swinging as high as I could I started to enjoy getting being pushed by Percy.

Percy kept pushing me until I told him that he didn't have to anymore. It took awhile for the swing to come to a stop and once I saw him waiting behind me, looking a little lost as to what to do next. When I motioned for him to go to the other swing, he obliged, but when I started to swing by myself he looked like he was about to get up out his seat. I thought that it would be a little mean if I kept on having him believe that he had to pushb me everytime that I was on a swing so I told him that it was a lie. He looked a little confused as to why I made such a rule for him to push me on a swing.

"It's because you let me stay wet a little longer than you when you knew you could've dried me up. So it was a joke for a joke. Plus I wanted to see you sweat for a bit as well." I added the last bit as an afterthought.

I thought that he was going to be mad at him for making a joke on him, he could one of those kids who can make a joke about others, but couldn't take a joke about himself. To my relief, he just got a twinkle in his eyes and grinned at me.

"I knew there was a reason why I like you." Percy said with a very amused voice

"Oh only _a _reason." I said with mock anger

Thankfully he wasn't really dense so he knew I wasn't mad at him.

He had a hand under his chin making it look like he was thinking hard. "Hmmmmm, yep." He said popping the p.

Giving him a soft punch to the arm I said "Jerk." All the while grinning.

* * *

><p>When we finished playing around in the park, we walked further eastward in our march to get out of the city while exploring some of the sites worth seeing when we eventually came upon mines. It looked like it's one of those places where the frightening and gruesome scenes would be in a horror movie, you know where a bunch of stupid teenagers enter a spooky looking place thinking it'll be fun, but end up getting chased and killed by some serial killer or monster. Needless to say we didn't walk into one of the mine shafts.<p>

Even though we didn't go inside the mines, I have the feeling that some monster from Greek Mythology is going to spring from one of them and pin us to the ground with its face in front of ours. I was only all the more nervous and antsy when I got the feeling that something was watching us the in the orange hue of the twilight. I looked around to see if there was a monster watching us, but I didn't see anything, which only served to make me even more scared as what if there was some kind of Greek monster with the ability blend in with its surroundings, or become invisible. For some chance of there being proof that it was just me being paranoid, I looked over at Percy to see if he also had that feeling that a pair of eyes were watching us.

My hopes were crumbled when I saw that Percy looked to be tense, ready to spring into action should anything come our way. His eyes also darted back and forth, scanning the area for anything unusual. They moved so quick as well, like he had a lot sugar into his system. But it wasn't the alert movement of his eyes that scared me the most, it was the look in his eyes, there was a forced calmness on the surface of his eyes, but just beneath that weak surface, there was barely suppressed rage in his eyes, like it was a creature that knows only of destruction and hate, being bounded in place with chains that creaked and moaned every time it struggled to get free. But through every other emotion in his eyes, there was a small child there having to relieve his worst nightmares.

A small part of my mind that wasn't so worried at what might happen, wondered, just what happened to Percy to make him feel this way, what kind of creature could cause these emotions to surface. Better yet why was Percy a runaway, what happened to his family. My thoughts were disrupted when I heard a bark that doesn't sound like it comes from a normal dog.

_**Woof, woof, woof, WOOF!**_


	9. Bad Night

**D****, its been a month or something like that before I updated this story, so I would like to say sorry to everyone that enjoys this story that I took this long to do it as I can't use the excuse of school anymore. But irregardless, I would like to say that if the POV of Percy didn't seem to show his anger at hellhounds correctly, then could you please tell via private messaging or reviewing as I just started writing for the first time since I made this story and the others. **

**Thanks and please enjoy the story ~ Child**

* * *

><p><strong>Annabeth's POV<strong>

When I heard the bark I was starting to really get scared as I may have ran away from a couple of hellhounds before when I was at home, but the barks didn't sound like it came from one, it sounded like it came from a group of them. ADHD only made more anxious and causing me to fidget a lot as I looked around the mines for a place that we could hide in, hopefully one with an odor foul enough that the hellhounds won't even dare to come closer to the hiding spot.

All I saw was old entrances to the mines with wooden beams that looked like they were once strong, now looked slightly gray and brittle. That seemed to be a good place to hide in as there are many entrances into the mines, meaning there are many exits out of it should our entrance cave in. But I kept looking for more stuff to hide in as I would like for our chances of staying alive to be as great as it can be as I rather like living. Sadly I only met failures as barrels which couldn't mask our smell and a mine cart with a tarp covering it didn't seem like a good choice to hide in. Even though trees are normally used by cats to stay away from dogs, I doubt that the same defense measure will work on 500 hundred pound dogs with claws that'll cleave the tree in half instead off raking the bark.

It seemed that the mines were the way to go.

I looked over at Percy to see if he was looking for a place for us to hide in and if he was just standing there looking like he was going to take on a gang of those creatures, I'll kick him in the shins and tell him this isn't the time for bravery or stupidity. Those thoughts were banished however when I gazed upon his form, he still held a mixture of anger and fear in his posture and his eyes were still cloudy. The only thought that came to mind was that I needed to snap him out of it and get him to safety.

With that thought I placed my hands on his tense shoulders

"Percy" I said with my hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

He stood still like an angry statue

_**Woof! Woof!**_ They're getting closer, I need to get him awake now!

The situation didn't call for a repeat of the snake-woman event, so I went in front of him (he still had that look like I didn't even exist), raised my legs, and kicked in the shin, making his face morph from an angry expression to one of surprise, then back into in anger, though it was directed at me and was less intense than what it was before.

"Annabeth what are you doing, don't you hear them coming closer? Hurry up and hide!" He said while hopping on one leg..

"Percy you also need to hide-" I was cut off

Suddenly his shin seem to be fine again and he stood on both legs and he shouted.

"HIDE! HIDE! HIDE! That's all I hear when it comes to these monsters. I've done that before and you know what it doesn't always work!" His face showed nothing but pure hatred, I know it wasn't directed at me, but still I cowered underneath his glare.

"Besides these monsters need to be destroyed as once they've locked onto a scent that they find savory, they aren't going to stop unless their prey is shown to be stronger than they are or if they succeed in their hunt!" He spat that last word out.

Once he was finished with that tirade, I was left weak, but I knew that without a source of water or any kind of weapon, Percy might as well be a steak with a sign that says "Here I am, Eat me with your jagged teeth!" with a gloved hand pointing at him.

"Percy you know that you can't kill them, especially if they're coming in a pack. You also use water as your main source of offense and defense right? Well guess what, there is no source of water anywhere!" My voice started started out soft, but then louder with each word spoken. I will not let this Seaweed Brain get killed because of his anger and stupidity.

He looked at me with a glare and muttered under his breath "That's never stopped me before."

I didn't give that last sentence much thought as he was still mad and most likely not thinking with the brain he is suppose to have from birth.

"Regardless Percy we need to" I didn't want to say "hide" again as that's what set him off the last time "escape the hellhounds and just hope it works. It's the best option we have right now" I said that last part when he started to protest. To get my point across I leveled him with my own glare.

The glare didn't seem bother him so much, but it seemed that I got through to him as he reluctantly nodded his head and looked at me, waiting for my suggestion on where to hide.

I pointed my finger at the mine entrance as even though it might just cave in, at least there are other exits, plus the smell of the coal and anything else that's inside permeates the air and will throw off the hellhounds' nose when they try to follow us inside.

_**Woof!**_

That sounded really close to us so I ran fast into the entrance cuz you know my life depended on it, while Percy looked like a kid that was being sent to his room.

When we entered the mines, the feeling that a pair of eyes was focused on us was gone.

We raced down the tracks of the carts for a minute or two in the dimly lit darkness when we heard the Greek dogs at the mouth of the mine. I knew that they would get confused by the different smells in the air that overpowers ours but that didn't give me much comfort as this was what, as I would feel so much better if we at something that can kill them. We would get caught faster if we didn't zig-zag throughout the mine. We turned left, right and even backtracked sometimes from forks in the tracks to go the other way in another bid to buy time to get away from them; it was when we making another backtrack did I see a small glow coming behind a shredded blanket hanging on a side of the mine.

_'Who would live in a mine? Never mind, if someone's living in there I should warn them of the hellhounds.' _But I don't think that I should yell to warn whoever is behind the curtain, unless I also wanted the attention of nearby hellhounds.

I nudge Percy when he's about to walk down one of the two tracks, he looks at me with an expression that says _'what'_. I point to the makeshift door at the wall of the mine. It takes him a couple of seconds before he gets what I'm trying to say and mouths _'okay'_.

I moved to the torn blanket while Percy looks out for any signs that the hellhounds are getting close to us. I lifted the blanket a bit and saw that there was a small fire burning in the center of this room with swords and spears lining one side of the walls with a lonesome shield in the corner, there were some bands, a few canteens and a Ziploc bag of something that looked like lemon squares was also inside the room. I went inside the room completely as I momentarily forgot I was being chased by rabid dogs from Greek Mythology. I looked at the lemon square look-a-like closely and saw that it didn't really look any different from any other lemon square, except the smell that was coming off of it was really alluring, I was tempted to take a bite but I quickly put it down as I remembered that it wasn't mine. I grabbed one of the canteens and uncorked it to look inside, I only saw a yellow liquid and it seemed to give off a vibe that it tasted delicious. As with the lemon square, I quickly put it down and went to scan the swords and spears. Some swords were short, some were long, some with no handles, some with jagged edges, and there were a few blades with cracks on them. The spears really had little variations to them, most of which was the size and the shape of the point. But even though they looked like regular swords and spears I got the feeling that they weren't made of normal metal.

At this point Percy came through the blanket with a face that he tried his best to keep blank, though I could see anger. "Annabeth the hellhounds are coming, I can hear then sniffing."

I quickly snapped back to the fact that I had to run away and I took two of the shortest swords hoping that these were made up of the same stuff as the snake-woman's sword was.

"Why are-" Percy was beginning to question me when I cut him off, the Seaweed Brain just didn't seem to get that these sword could probably give us a fighting chance.

"They were in there and I thought that no one would miss them." I shoved a sword in his hands and that seemed to be a god enough answer for him.

We both got out of the small room and ran as fast as we could to get out of the mines even though the weight of the sword in my hand was uncomfortable. After getting a decent exercise from all that running did we see an opening with trees swaying gently in the bleak night; I wish our moods were as care-free as the trees.

We made it out of the mines but the feeling that someone was watching us was back again. Shortly after that feeling did a couple of hellhounds seem to rise from the shadows of the trees, oh Hades.

Did the Greek Monsters pick up some tactics from humans as was there a hellhound watching the mine to spot us? Was it even a hellhound watching us?

I didn't have enough time to ponder this as a hellhound decided to make the first move and charged at me.

Most people would be frozen stiff with fear that a dog that's red and black all over, the size of a man, and with jagged teeth charging at them at a hundred miles per hour, but as a demigod I jumped out of the way as it moved passed me like a freight train. I landed face-first on the ground while it skidded to a halt as it recovers from its failed assault. I raised my head just to see the glower that was clearly displayed on its face. Instantly I pushed myself off the ground and stood straight up just as it decided to run at me.

It walked when it was within striking distance and started to go in a circle around me in predatory fashion as it looked at with loathing. Even though I turned myself several times to keep the hellhound in my sight at all times, I was still unnerved, the fact that I kept thinking about hat would've happen if my relfexes didn't save me the first time and if it would save me the next time.

Suddenly it whipped its claw at my face. Instinctively I raised my hands to my face, inadvertently raising the forgotten sword to the front of my face. The claw and the sword met, with the claw being deflected and the blade being forced down.

In the fear of the moment, I punched the surprised monster in front of me with my other hand and felt the cold wetness of the nose before I heard a satisfying yelp. It jumped away from me and placed its head on the ground nursing its nose with its paws.

I should've ran up to it and stabbed it in the head or at least kick it in the nose, but I stood still looking at the beast and felt a sense of happiness as I managed to finally hurt one of the many creatures that plagued my life.

It growled, singaling it was done with nursing its nose and breaking me out of my joy. It rosed and bared it teeth at me, but at the moment I didn't care for whatever it did to try and scare me, I was feeling brave towards the monster that I managed to hurt. Then it charged at me like before and when it saw that I was looking at it defiantly, it seemed to growl louder.

It came closer and closer with each step, it didn't look like it had any intentions of stopping. My courage was weakening, I was getting scared with each of those steps, but despite all that I stayed firmly in place. Just when it seemed to be close enough did I close my eyes as I swung my sword albeit a little sluggishly as the weight of the sword didn't entirely agree with me.

I heard a surprised yelp and then the sound of something dissolving as if the Greek dog was hit with acid.

I opened my eyes as I saw a shadow sink into the ground _'I guess that was the hellhound'_. I felt a little tired and happier than just a few seconds ago. That all stopped when I saw that the group of hellhounds some ways in front of me looked a little angry, though they didn't lunge at me.

Soon some of them were looking to the right which I thought was to trick me into looking the other way so one of them could kill me. That all changed when I heard sounds in that directions I immediately thought _'Percy!'_.

I looked to the right and saw that Percy was alright with the point of his sword touching the ground, but he had that angry expression stuck on his face again. Then I thought that if Percy wasn't even fighting the whole time, why didn't he try and help me? I looked again, but this time not at seagreen-eyed boy, but at anywhere that could have signs of a fight with a hellhound. I noticed paw marks in front of Percy and littered around him.

I heard a bark and found my attention back on the line of mythical monsters in front of me. They were baring their teeth at us all the while growling. Two of them placed a paw forward as if to declare that they were the next challengers, though the dogs seemed to have gotten angrier when they did. One of them went to Percy as the other one fixed me a mean glare.

* * *

><p><strong>Percy's POV<strong>

Two hellhounds stepped out in front of the group to show that they were next fighters. It seemed that there was some pride amongst this group as they didn't try and gang up on one of us as they seperated and faced me and Annabeth respectively.

The hellhound that I was looking at face to mug glared at me with an appraising look in his eyes. I could tell that this monster was a little more smart than the other beasts. He circled around me once, but stopped after seeing that I would move my body so as to see his ugly nose. He stood on all four of his legs with his red eyes looking for any signs of a twitch, any kind of weakness.

We stood still for some time and we every passing second, the more my eyes had looked at his figure which made my brain send messages to my body to clench my sword tighter with every detail slowly being memorised. My teeth grinding together with the pain that was associated with this creature's kind. The red that was slowly invading my vision, slowly creeping over my eyes so I see the world in a red haze for all the anger that this vile dog's kind brought me.

Without a word, I leveled my sword to my shoulders with both my hands and pointed the tip at the beast and charged at it as quickly as my legs could move. Words were not needed when fighting one of them, it would only serve to give his presence away should he have some kind of surprise.

The monster jumped to the side and when I neared it, I had one hand push the blade in the direction of the animal while the other simply held the weapon in place. I made a clear arc of bronze just as the hellhound crouched to avoid sinking back to Tartarus where the he and the rest of his _family _belong. It sprung up, giving me a flash of its jagged yellow teeth where there were some dried blood being defiled just by being in the mouth of this monster.

Soon I found myself pinned on the ground with the pads of its paws where crushing my arm. The fangs where now more pronounced as though this thing seemed to have the equivalent of a smile. As some of the drool that escaped from its mouth was dripping onto my face, the gooey, disgusting, fluid sliding down my cheeks or my forehead, I became more enraged. The swords was out of my hands as I struggled to get free, I digged my fingers into the skin, my hands squeezing hard onto the forelegs to stop the blood flow, and my eyes shooting promises of death straight at it's forehead.

In my struggle, I thought to have one of my hands reach to the soil that surrounds me and grabbed some of the earth into my fist. Suddenly the Greek Monster drove its head to my neck, ready to make me into its next meal.

I jerked my head to the side and heard the hellhound got a mouthful of dirt. That wasn't all the dirt though, as I had also thrown the soil in my hand at the beast's head and as luck would have it, my head was facing the hand that held nothing. The paws were lifted from my arms as a cry of pain and surprise was heard.

As soon as the paws were off, my hand drove for the sword and rolled away missing a heavy paw from the blind and wild mythical animal. In the heat of the moment and the pain tolerance that I've built in the last year, I ignored the slight cuts from rolling with the sword and stood up to take a wild swing at the thrashing creature. I slashed into the right of the mug and its shoulder.

No doubt I cut into its brain as it turned completely black and fell to the ground in a glob of a shadow.

As I watch the remains of the creature fall to the ground and turned my gaze towards the living hellhounds, I felt that I wasn't happy with the death of one of them, I wanted the others to keep their fallen friend company down in Tartarus as he reforms. I mean what kind of person would I be if I kept them apart, a _monster_ that's what I would be.

So the staredown between us kept going on with neither of us backing down, unwilling to show the other a moment of weakness. I was brought back to realty when Annabeth yell in pain. I twisted my head to look in her, my anger being replaced by worry and fear, direction and saw that she was sporting a cut on her upper right arm which she had her other hand covering it even though she was still holding the sword in her hand. Worst part of it is that she's paying more attention to the cut than her opponent. She's frozen from the sight of seeing her own blood

As I stared at Annabeth, her scared grey-eyes, and the looming char-black hellhound like a hunting dog for death, I remembered the fear that comes from them.

I started to run to her as soon as I see the hellhound's eyes gleam with delight. The leg muscles tense up in prepration to push her to the ground so it can maul freely. The thought of seeing Annabeth's blood on the teeth of that monster only serves to enrage amd frighten me even more.

I knew I wouldn't be able to reach her in time so I pulled the sword to my back and then flung it at the joyous hellhound.

I shout to get Wisegirl's attenion back on the creature in front of her.

"Annabeth! Stop looking at your cut and look at the big pointy teeth and claws!"

Annabeth turns her head to look at me first, much to my chargin, then snaps her head to look at the opposing animal in front of her. I see the terror in her stormy eyes as she notices the gleam in the hellhound's fiery eye. Just as the dog starts to pounce, my sword flies right in front of its face, just missing a hair's width of its nose. The sword ends up with a quarter of its blade buried in the ground.

Startled, the oversized dog lurches to a stop and just stumbles and falls to the floor.

"Wise Girl stab it!" I practically screamed at her.

She raises the blade slowly and shakily, still conflicted from seeing her own blood. Annabeth brought the blade to the neck of the beast, even though she didn't so much as swung it down than leting the weight of it pull itself down. As the metal was falling down on the neck of the monster, it began to stand, helping the sharp edge pierce through the flesh and seperate it from the body.

I shout to her once more to inform her to get distracted by _anything_. I know that it must've sounded harsh seeing as she's recovering from the first time of getting hurt by one of the many monsters from Greek Mythology, but I rather have her upset with me than with her dying. I look her over one more time and see that her face and her body language just scream fear.

Tearing my gaze from her, I look at the line of charred dogs in front of me that seemed to seeth anger, no doubt mad that I sort of double teamed with Annabeth to get rid of one of their own. Bit it didn't matter to me how angry they were over losing the chance of getting at least one demigod dead or for a meal, the familiar rage was bubbling up inside of me and a small part of my mind just hopes that Annabeth would live through this night.

Suddenly the dog in the middle barks, causing the others in the line to break up and head for me.

Guess they don't like it when their playmates don't play fair.


End file.
